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Bright colors and different shapes meant to illustrate a photonic array
Photo Credit
Brian Long
Artist's concept illustration of a photonic memory array

A new optical memory platform for super fast calculations

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Waves crash on a revetment protecting houses along Broad Beach, Malibu.
Photo Credit
Charles Lester
The ocean is advancing on California, and we need to determine how we will respond.

Securing the future of California’s coasts
abstract image of the brain disintegrating

Researchers uncover a potential method for interrupting the misfolding of tau protein that underlies neurodegenerative disease
the cellular development of an embryonic tooth
Photo Credit
Neha Pincha Shroff and Pengfei Xu
Tooth epithelium (cell surface; yellow) and mesenchyme (cell surface; magenta). Proliferating cells (cyan) expand the tissue, generating a mechanical pressure at the tissue center that drives the formation of the main tooth signaling center or organizer, the enamel knot.

Pressure determines which embryonic cells become ‘organizers’
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New study in Nature Water puts spotlight on importance of groundwater
A large field of sunflowers near Sacramento.
Photo Credit
Tfoxfoto via iStock
Tweaks to farming practices could preserve some of California’s declining water resources.

Small changes can yield big savings in agricultural water use
A tractor sprays a soybean field in spring.
Photo Credit
Fotokostic vi iStock
Organic farming practices can increase pesticide use in neighboring, non-organic fields.

Organic farms can have mixed effects on pesticide use depending on their neighbors
Two views: An Etruscan shrew and the breeching hide of a blue whale
Photo Credit
Shrew: Trebol-a/CC BY-SA 3.0 Whale: Jeff Jacobsen

Reference genomes from the world’s largest and smallest mammals pave the way toward solving mysteries of development and lifespan
Wind turbines behind solar panels at sunset
Photo Credit
iStock \ hrui

Evaluating and advancing equity in energy transitions
A chiton sits among algae on a rock.
Photo Credit
Marcelo Rojas González via iNaturalist
The shell of the variable tonicia is covered in complex, image-forming eyes.

Unraveling the mystery of chiton visual systems
Beijing’s Forbidden City lies shrouded in industrial smog.
Photo Credit
Holger Kleine via iStock
China’s infamous air pollution affects its citizens’ minds as well as their bodies.

Clearing the air reduces suicide rates
a cathedral in the middle of a mountain town in Colombia
Yarumal, a municipality in the foothills of the Andes north of Medellín, is one of several communities in Colombia that host a large kindred with a genetic form of early-onset Alzheimer's disease

Untangling a sticky mystery: Researchers make precious headway into a genetic form of Alzheimer’s disease
A foothill yellow-legged frog perches on a rock.
Photo Credit
Brome McCreary
Foothill yellow-legged frogs live in the flowing water of rivers and streams, so are especially vulnerable when these shrink to isolated pools.

Scientists assemble a richer picture of the plight and resilience of the foothill yellow-legged frog
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